It’s no secret that Brendan Gaffney and I are obsessed with the life and work of Chester Cornett, a traditional Eastern Kentucky chairmaker who pushed into the world of art with his later chairs he built mostly in Cincinnati.

While Brendan and I have been studying his chairs for some time, we both have developed an odd affection for the hand-painted sign Chester had outside his workshop. The sign is made of bits of thin sheet metal that have been screwed or riveted together. The letters are orange (Brendan found a color photo that has the sign in the background).

If you don’t speak Kentucky, here’s what the sign says:

Handmade Furniture
Maker Of The
Cornett Chairs
We Make Anything
Or It Can’t Be Made

I love the misspellings. “Funiture?” “Chaires?” “Iney Thin?”

Brendan and I have been plotting to make a sign like this for our shop. Today we made a prototype using hardboard, grey primer and orange paint from the home center. After studying photos of the sign, I decided the letters were 5” high and determined the width and height of the sign based on that.

We bought an inexpensive stencil set and stencil brushes from the home center. Then we went to work. The entire project took about an hour.

We’ll hang this sign in storefront’s library. And now I’m going to find some used sheet metal so we can make the real thing. The metal sign will hang in the garden where it will age with the help of the elements.

So, Middle English, German, French, Latin, Dutch, Old Norse et. al., you have quite the egregious collection of appropriations under your belt. Folks who truly believe ‘cultural appropriation’ is a Bad Thing must never use any form of written, oral, or expressive communication. Nor can they impose such sins on children.

Adopting elements of Chester Cornets life for decorative items such as lapel pins and wall hangings doesn’t bring a smile to my face. If you find pleasure in this kind of behavior than good for you. Next up… t-shirts!

If we were making fun of Chester or were trying to sell products using his name, I would agree. But it’s quite the opposite. I feel a deep kinship with the man and have studied his life and work for years. We do these things to remember him.

I love the similarities to another great vernacular artist, the Mad Potter of Biloxi, George Ohr. Ohr also had colorful handmade signs declaring himself the “Greatest Potter Liveing” [sic], “Buy a souvenir before the potter dies, or earns a reputation” 🙂

Excellent timing on the post, Christ. I sat down at my minicule (like… a minuscule cubicle) this morning and saw there was a letter from Michael Davis on my keyboard. He’d picked up a few extra Cornett buttons at the LAP event a few weekends ago and mailed one to me.